Cryptocurrency & Developing Ukrainian Communities

Yelyzavetivka is the only village in Ukraine where cryptocurrency is legalized. The village council allowed virtual operations and officially included cryptographic assets in the community's property

uatv.ua

16.08.2019

The Dnipropetrovsk region is described in the guidebooks as the land of Cossacks and the home of Petrykivka painting. But we are going to the village of Yelyzavetivka not to study history, but modern technologies and new approaches to improving the quality of life.

Fedir Havrysh could not imagine a day without the Internet. The pensioner is interested in geopolitics, history and the news.

“I like to dive in there and there is immeasurable information. I remembered the Yalta conference. Well, that’s what Israeli Prime Minister Perez said, that you can lie for a month or two — if you don’t have the internet, you will lie for half a year,” he said.

The internet appeared in Yelyzavetivka a couple of years ago. Optical fiber was provided to each yard, and a public wi-fi zone appeared in the center of the village. The village head begins his day by monitoring information on the Internet.

Maksym Holosnyi invested 500 US dollars in several types of cryptocurrencies in 2018. He decided to share his first profit with all residents of the village.

“When I told this before the session, the deputies — these are middle-aged people — looked at me as if they were about to call an ambulance. I had to get a bag of money and show them 200 thousand hryvnia,” he said.

“He brought money, I put it in a suitcase. I have a book with the name of all our residents, it’s our voter’s list. They came with a passport and received a payment. There was enough for everyone,” village coincul Liubov Onufriyenko said.

Now Yelyzavetivka is the only village in Ukraine where cryptocurrency is legalized. The village council allowed virtual operations and officially included cryptographic assets in the community’s property.

“The regulation of the territorial community — it’s a stack of papers — was submitted to the state registrar. There is a state registration stamp, the decision is published, there is no protest from the prosecutors, there are no lawsuits,” Holosnyi said.

“We always considered him a man of a new type, so his idea with cryptocurrencies did not surprise me. When he started working here, he always came up with something new. It is interesting to work with him. Let’s say, the brain does not stagnate with him around,” Yelyzavetivka village council chief accountant Serhiy Ptyshnyk said.

Maksym Holosnyi developed social programs that have no analogs in Ukraine. In the village, all children have medical insurance, and adults can rely on cancer treatment at a clinic in Kyiv. Graduates of the local school receive start-up capital.

“This is done in the United Arab Emirates and now in Yelyzavetivka as well. This practice is not critical to the budget. It’s a good motivation. I believe that someday this will be widespread and will become the basis for ambitious competition,” he said.

Village and regional heads from all over the country come to learn from him. The British Parliament was also interested in his experience. After a trip to London, this mural appeared on the village council building — money for the paint came from the sale of cryptocurrencies.

“I spoke to the peers of House of Lords about cryptocurrency, as well as social experiments. They give you a tablet and ask to show them evidence of how you work, which cryptocurrency is which, what the exchange rate is,” Holosnyi said.

Maksym Holosnyi is currently studying how to introduce cryptocurrency into the real sector of the economy. He plans to create a list of goods and services for which you can pay with bitcoins, teracoins or Cardano. The virtual money rate will be available on an electronic screen in the center of Yelyzavetivka.

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